#and roy kinda did but apparently not enough because his plot at the end is how he do better so i guess he didn’t | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bigskydreaming · 4 years

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Making this its own post because replying to the ask got so weirdly formatted I can’t even. Oh tumblr. You work so well.

@themessofthecentury asked:

jsksjf my tumblr notifs are bugging and i didnt see your post but!!! The patron Saint of Robins?? I am much intrigue!!

(This is from this ask game, just....gotten to late, lololol. And I still have more I’m getting to, no worries. Just had a rough couple days is all, laid me up a bit.)

Okay, so The Patron Saint of Robins is kinda like the situation at the end of Grayson, except also not at all. And actually this is one of my older WIPs, and according to Scrivener I started it in 2015 afhislfhalhfalf, so it really has nothing to do with that. Also, its Young Justice-verse, but for two specific reasons:

1) YJ-verse is my go-to for Good Dad Bruce Wayne, when I don’t want to actually tackle the issues I have with his and his kids’ dynamic in comic book canon. I don’t carry over things like the adoption issue or the Robin succession into YJ fics, as I don’t think there’s anything that suggests they’re ever a specific issue in YJ and I don’t feel a need to make them one. So pretty much anything and everything I write in YJ goes with the backstory that Dick’s already adopted by Season One, and he’s the one to grant each later Robin permission to use the mantle, with no conflict over that, and more of a pre-Crisis transition to Nightwing than the post-Crisis firing from Robin. And this fic inherently needs Good Dad Bruce Wayne to work, lol.

2) I needed Klarion the Witch-Boy. Who of course exists in comic book canon, but is muuuuuch different there, and I just needed him to be a little demonic evil shithead, who sets everything in motion to get payback on the heroes for thwarting the Light in Season One, and he targets Robin due to being the oft-cited ‘first of the baby brat heroes’ and the ‘heart of the cape community.’

You don’t really need to be familiar with YJ canon at all for this one, as it goes sharply AU from after Season One, and only faintly and vaguely references specific events from that season. And I use my own YJ-ized version of the Titans as much as the actual YJ Team.

So basically, the plot of this one is to take revenge on the heroes for spoiling his game in Season One, Klarion plays a new game, by putting a chaos curse on Robin. It essentially erases him from peoples’ memories, though he’s perfectly able to make new ones. If he re-introduces himself to someone ask Dick Grayson, for instance, they don’t suddenly remember who Dick Grayson is or was, but they don’t forget about him again from that point onward, its like they meet him for the first time as a stranger.

But the curse part of things is only Batman can break it and restore everyone’s memories of Dick and his actual history, and only by identifying him for who he really is. And Dick can’t be part of breaking his own curse or else it seals it and makes it permanent and unbreakable forever.

Which of course leaves Dick completely miserable at first, understandably, and Bruce (and everyone else Dick knows, to varying different degrees) feeling some kind of loss but with no idea what it is they think or feel that they’re missing. Dick makes some half-hearted attempts at starting a new life for himself in Gotham, and in the process befriends a street kid named Jason Todd, though Dick introduces himself to Jason with just the name Robin.

The way the curse operates is it restitches together peoples’ memories to cover up the gaps where memories of him would go. So for instance, even though Jason never knew Dick before the curse, he was familiar with Batman and Robin just as much as any Gothammite was.....but due to the curse, the name Robin, upon meeting Dick, had no special meaning to him or anyone else. As far as he knew, Batman had always operated on his own in Gotham, the first teen superhero was that Speedy kid in Star City, etc. So when Jason first meets Dick, he just thinks he’s some dude whose name happens to be Robin.

Eventually, because Dick’s been kinda torturing himself by spying on Bruce just to ‘keep an eye on him’ and still watch his back, and he’s recognized by now that Bruce is mourning his loss without even knowing that he’s missing something....so Dick, who has also kinda come to see Jason as a little brother figure due to watching out for him as well....decides to kill two birds with one stone, unfortunate pun not intended. (Jason doesn’t die in this one, lol). Basically, Dick puts in motion the chain of events that lead Jason to stealing Batman’s tires, because he doesn’t know EXACTLY what Bruce will do but he knows it’ll get his attention in a big way and Bruce will take it from there.

One thing leads to another, Jason ends up living with Bruce and when eventually he wants to be trained by Bruce so he can do what he does and protect kids like he used to be.....when asked to pick a name....Jason names himself after the guy who always looked out for him, and who led to him being found by Bruce in the first place. He doesn’t know that his friend ‘Robin’ steered him towards those tires deliberately, just to bring him and Bruce into contact, but he does credit him with making the suggestion that ‘inadvertently’ (as far as he knows) enabled his and Bruce’s introduction, and so he names himself in honor of the boy who helped him and who he tried to track down again to similarly help, after Bruce adopted him, but was never able to find again.

Over the years, Dick also ends up steering Tim, Cass, Duke and Damian to Bruce in different ways than comic book canon (Steph and Babs’ debuts remain their own, as family adjacent but not family specifically) and thus is integral to the forming of the Batfam and has a connection with them even before the curse ultimately ends up broken and he’s able to reclaim his full identity. And each of them end up Robin at least briefly, like Steph is never Robin in this AU, and sticks with Spoiler, whereas Cass IS briefly Robin before becoming Batgirl after Babs. I did this for a few different reasons...

One, I really like that Cass is never Robin in main continuity as it creates a different dynamic between her and Dick than most of their siblings have, BUT I’ve always been curious to play around what Cass-as-Robin might even be like, just for an AU. Two, part of the Black Bat and Batgirl but never Robin sequence of mantles for Cass in the comic book continuity is like.....although it doesn’t get explored nearly enough, Babs was as much a kind of mother figure for Cass as Bruce was a father figure, despite Babs’ young age. So it makes more sense for Cass to stick more to just Bat-mantles than to ever be a Robin in the comic books. But in YJ, Babs is even younger, and just way too young to have the specific kind of dynamic that leads to that in the comic books, so its not as unreasonable IMO for her to have a different dynamic in her early days in the family here, before becoming closer with Babs and taking up the Batgirl mantle after she moves on to become Oracle.

And then also, and this is also the primary reason for making Duke a Robin briefly, before Damian is old enough....I got hung up on the title and it just didn’t work as well if it was Robins + Cass and Duke, lololol. See, in addition to helping steer the family into the points of introduction that make them a family, over the years he also acts as like, a guardian angel figure to the various family members, looking out for them and interceding in times of extreme danger, like when Jason is almost killed by the Joker. He’s always in disguise, but the kids eventually compare notes and realize there’s a singular figure behind each of their introductions to Bruce and the guy swooping out of nowhere to save their behinds whenever they’re most in danger, and Jason eventually connects this back to the guy who apparently NOT so coincidentally suggested he go after the Batmobile’s tires that fateful night, and the kids end up jokingly/not-so-jokingly referring to this figure as the Patron Saint of Robins. (Shout-out to the occasional mentions/allusions of Jason’s Catholicism).

They never tell Bruce about this figure (at least before Bruce starts to put together clues on his own), because they all figured out that for whatever reason, this person despite wanting them all to meet Bruce seems to want to avoid Bruce himself, and they kinda want to respect that as a kind of payback for his help, and also like....Bruce, even a kinder, gentler Bruce, is still Bruce. And when Bruce is gonna Bruce, that means Batparanoia. And all of them for various reasons DO trust that this guy has nothing but good intentions towards them, and so they don’t want to like....ruin or tarnish the positivity they associate with his intercession in their lives with paranoia or treating him like a bad guy. Which ultimately is really just smoke and mirrors for saying that he’s kinda a ‘just for them’ secret. Its a Robin thing.

(Until its not).

Because meanwhile, Dick, in between meeting the various Batfam members and pulling strings and looking out for them from the shadows, at first travels the world looking for ways to break his curse. But when ultimately its clear that the only way to break it is the loophole built into it already, Bruce identifying him for who he really is, but without Dick doing anything to steer him towards the answer, Dick settles into a new hero identity as Nightwing, and forms the Teen Titans, a public group of young superheroes (minus Roy and Wally, unfortunately, but still with Donna, Garth, Raven, Kory, ignoring season 3 Vic and also Terra because AU redemption arc what what, etc). And the Teen Titans avoid both the Young Justice Team and the Justlce League with EXTREME measures, much to the other heroes’ confusion and aggravation, because in the early days of the Titans, in a moment of what he’d term weakness, on one of his ‘bad days,’ Dick tells them enough of his story that they’re able to put together a good sense of what happened and who he really is by reading between the lines and what he leaves unsaid....

BUT as a result, all end up extremely committed to not mixing and mingling casually with the rest of the cape community because they don’t want to risk dropping any hints about the guy under Nightwing’s mask, in case that might count as steering Batman towards clues and seal the curse for good. So I have a lot of fun with having the Titans just nope out of the scene the second the bad guys are defeated even when they have to team up with other heroes, leaving the other heroes confused as hell and trying not to be all ‘WHY DON’T YOU LIKE US??”

Anyway, so yeah, that’s the gist of this one, lol. With it of course following the eventual plot that like...the Batfam starts to Detect and put things together.

ANYWHO!

Snippet

Damian versus Klarion: Round One

“Aww, its adorable that you think you’re in my league,” the Witch-Boy cooed in an absolute mockery of sympathy. Damian bristled, but before he could do anything more than that, he was faced with a much more pressing matter as reality completely lost its mind.

The walls of the cavern fell away in an instant, only to be replaced with a whirling dervish of winds all around them, as if they now stood in the center of a cyclone that bled red and silver and black. It shrieked and wailed in a chorus of voices just on the other side of being comprehensible, a symphony of the damned that set every nerve in Damian’s body aflame with a primal instinct to get out, to find silence, to be anywhere but here.

He’d barely staggered a step backwards when the ground erupted beneath him, splitting apart into jagged obsidian shards that bobbed precariously in the sea of magma barely glimpsed through cracks now spiderwebbing their way across the floor. Spears of lightning burst upwards through them, stabbing impossibly at the heavens rather than raining down from them. They hissed and crackled as they flickered like forked serpent tongues of electric violet and black. The forks becoming branches, the pillars of sky-shattering light transforming into the trunks of great trees that grew upwards and outward, weaving a canopy overhead. One that wept violently red leaves that fell gently to the ground, only to hiss and bubble like acid once they did.

“See, normally this is when I’d hit someone with a little razzle-dazzle like this,” Klarion called out over the song of madness he’d created, as it crooned and careened wildly all around them. He snapped his fingers, and in the span of a second it all ceased. Reality reaffirmed itself, and all was right with the world once more…except now the two of them stood at the end of a hallway in Wayne Manor.

Damian stumbled, the sudden reappearance of firm ground paradoxically being the thing to challenge his balance. The demon boy standing beside him crooked his thumb and forefinger in the semblance of a gun, the smile pasted across his face one of wickedly gleeful malice.

“But you, kiddo, you’re special. Cuz there’s nothing I could do to you now that could top what I’ve already done, so why try when I can just savor the moment instead?”

“What are you babbling about?” Damian demanded roughly. In the wake of what the Witch-Boy had just conjured up with nothing more than a gesture, he was keenly aware of how flimsy a shield his bravado made. He just had absolutely no idea what else to fall back on.

Klarion only threw back his head and laughed though, skipping merrily down the hall as he did.

“I know something you don’t know,” he sing-songed and Damian lost what little grasp of his patience he’d managed to hang onto.

“You overestimate my need for an answer. Attempt to intimidate me all you wish, but I have no desire to indulge your little game any further.”

Klarion jerked to a stop and spun around, his face screwed into a childish pout. He stomped his foot, petulance personified. “I’m not intimidating you anymore, I’m gloating! Ugh, you’re so stupid! They’re completely different, how can you not tell?”

Every light in the hallway flickered and fizzed abruptly. The walls wavered, bubbled, momentarily molten as if made of wax.

Again Damian was reminded just how mercurial this being he was faced with was, and how dangerous. Perhaps, as Father would say, this was not the time to indulge his own instinctive inclinations. Or as Todd would put it, just because you’re already fucked, that’s no reason to fuck yourself over more than you have to.

Crude as his older brother was, there was occasional merit to his…pithiness. Not that he would be admitting that any time soon, of course.

“Fine. What is it you wish to gloat about then?” Damian grated out. The appeasement, such as it was, tried its best to stick in his throat before finally clawing its way free. But at least it proved worth the effort when the godling’s mood reverted back to impishness as readily as with the flip of a switch.

“Well. Its like this, you see.” Klarion said. He dragged it out as he folded both legs underneath him to sit cross-legged in the air, plopping his head into his hands. “I did a baaaaaaaaaaaaad, bad thing to your family, a loooooong time ago. And none of you have done anything about it, because you don’t even know! Isn’t that funny? Doesn’t matter how big a hero Daddy Bats is if he doesn’t even know what needs saving huh? Little Catch-22 there, you might say.”

“Yes. Quite hysterical,” Damian said dryly. “So what is it you claim to have done then?”

The Witch-Boy just sat there, regarding him with amusement, and the seconds marched on into minutes. Damian’s skin crawled. Prickling with impatience and possibly something…more. He wasn’t quite ready to name it anxiety or something as melodramatic as all that yet. In fact, he’d rather not put a name to it at all, but today did not appear to be a day for configuring things to his liking.

Klarion’s wicked grin grew as if sensing his thoughts, though to the best of his knowledge (and Damian did quickly ransack the library of his memory just to be sure) there was no indication telepathy was included among the Chaos Lord’s many, many powers. And still that detestable smile stretched slowly wider all the same, in perfect synchronization with the rising tide of Damian’s unease. Perhaps the Witch-Boy’s file was in need of annotation.

“How many doors would you say are in this hallway?”

“What? Seven.” Damian snapped out his answer, annoyed by the non sequitur. Not to mention baffled. Was it too much to expect even a semblance of linear thought from the Chaos brat?

“Are you suuuuuuure?” The Witch-Boy stretched his query out obnoxiously. “Maybe you should count again. Just for kicks and giggles.”

Damian throttled back each and every retort attempting to spring to his lips, stuffing them back down and cramming a lid on everything he most dearly wished to say to this most vexing of…shitheads. Once again, it appeared as though nothing less than Todd’s preferred form of nomenclature would suffice. Wonderful. On top of everything else Damian had to deal with today, he seemed to be finding common ground with the man all over the place. Was there no end to the indignities he must suffer?

But marshaling his own formidable willpower, Damian took a deep breath and indulged the Chaos Lord, glancing his eyes down the length of the hallway and counting out each doorway one by one. There was his own room of course, with Cassandra’s to the right of his, and the room Brown used when staying over to the right of hers. That was three. Then there was Thomas directly across from his own room, with Drake to his right and Todd just beyond that, with Father’s room at the very end of the hall, his master suite staggered and with no direct opposite like the others. Seven.

Except all of a sudden there was a door directly opposite his father’s. For a total of eight.

Damian’s brow furrowed in consternation. The faint whispers of uncertainty already seeded throughout him bore fruit, ripening into poisonous stabbings of doubt.

“That’s not real,” he stated with as much conviction as he could muster.

The Witch-Boy’s smile only grew wider still. “Isn’t it, though?”

“There’s never been a door there before,” Damian persisted, striding confidently down the hall towards it. The Chaos Lord flitted ahead of him, inverting til he was upside down and skipping merrily once more, though this time from the ceiling.

“Or has it been there all along?” He sing-songed some more.

“I would think we might have noticed if it had been,” Damian growled.

“Yes, you’d think, wouldn’t you? You are all supposed to be a family of detectives, I thought. Makes you wonder…if you could miss this, what else might you have failed to notice?”

Damian snarled to himself and did his best to shut out the demon boy’s prattling. He quickened his strides, eating up the length of the hallway in his haste to reach its end. He wasn’t sure what opening the door would prove, let alone what bewilderment the godling had conjured on its other side, but it appeared the only end to this game of his was through it, so let there be an end to it already.

And yet, for all his certainty - or best facsimile of it - he couldn’t help but pause once he reached the door in question. His hand hovered within reach of its brass knob, but some instinct, some…caution, held him at bay. As much as he wanted to dismiss all this as just one more of the Chaos Lord’s inane charades, there was a tension in the air that felt too weighty to be the product of just magical conjuring. Something more was in play here. Real forces were at work. His father might disdain magic, but Damian had been around enough of it himself to know when true power had been raised. And the span of empty space between his hand and this hither-to-unseen doorknob held more of it than Damian had felt throughout all the mad warpings Klarion had made of reality thus far.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Klarion asked from somewhere overhead. His voice, usually pitched to carry, was so soft for a moment Damian mistook it for his own inner doubts. “Some doors are easier to open than to close again, you know.”

Even knowing the goading for what it was couldn’t stop Damian then, and with a simple breath to fortify himself, he reached for the knob, spun it once, and shoved the door open all in a single sharp movement.

The Witch-Boy giggled up above.

The door swung wide, a forceful arc that should have revealed anything and everything within it all at once; the better to react quickly to whatever that might be. Fine in principle, perfect in execution, but thwarted by one small detail:

There was nothing on the other side.

And not in the sense of it being just an empty room, but true nothingness. A pitch-black abyss darker than the deepest night, yawning forth from the doorway in a vast, impenetrable shroud. Nor was anything hidden in the darkness, Damian knew, even if just intuitively. He could feel it, that he stood on the edge of an impossible cliff, that there was nothing beyond this threshold but an aching chasm of emptiness and loss. The surety of it hung in the air, thick and heavy, a miasma that seeped through to his side of the doorway and clung to him like the moisture of a fog beads upon the skin.

Klarion’s head suddenly popped up alongside him, hovering just over his shoulder.

Albeit still upside down.

“Well that doesn’t seem right,” he mused, tapping at his lips with a forefinger. “What do you suppose is meant to be in there?”

The last of Damian’s brittle patience shattered.

“Enough! What is the meaning of all this, demon? Speak plainly, for once in your miserable existence!”

His self-preservation instincts and the reminder of just who it was he was shouting at kicked in too little too late, but he wouldn’t take his exasperated fury back even if he could. He was who he was after all. But fortunately, that described the Witch-Boy just as accurately, and rather take offense or perceive any actual threat from Damian’s rage, the Chaos Lord just shrieked with laughter and sprung backwards. He flipped right side up, still hovering in mid-air, and clapped his hands with glee.

“Oh, I should have done this ages ago,” Klarion sang out. “Why, you’re almost as fun as he used to be. Back before he got all droll and serious, that is. He’s no fun at all anymore, nothing like this. Never wants to play, always just running back to his tower with that little bitch of a demoness.”

His face soured like he’d just sucked on a lemon. But rather than stop there, his countenance kept morphing into an increasingly savage scowl, the longer he ranted. The hallway was suddenly sweltering, baking with unseen heat that twisted the air into shimmering ribbons. The small horns sprouting from his forehead burst into scimitars of flame that cut through those ribbons and set them similarly ablaze.

“Always putting on airs like she’s some kind of royalty, just because her Daddy Dearest put the fear into a few peasants back in the day,” the Witch-Boy snarled viciously. “As if that’s enough to put her on par with the likes of me. No one is the likes of me. NO ONE!”

Reality itself quaked with the force of his shout. White-blue flames spat forth and crescendoed down the length of the corridor, splashing against its walls and searing them to a crisp. Damian braced himself for all the good it would do, keenly aware of the void still gaping hungrily behind his back, but before the fire could become an actual danger to him as well, all was quiet once more.

Silence hung in the air much like the demon boy, poised yet motionless. Suspended. Waiting.

And then Klarion simply inhaled and brushed his hands down the front of his garments, smoothing out the wrinkles as he reclaimed his calm. The corridor restored itself to its former self, curtains of vintage reality unrolling from the ceiling to the floor as though papering over the damage. Damian felt rather than saw when the portal behind him swung shut and was replaced with the expanse of ivory paint and ornate sconces he was used to seeing in its place.

“I am one of a kind, after all,” Klarion finally remarked. It was a casual drawl offered forth almost off-handedly, as if more a reminder to himself than uttered for anyone else’s sake. He used one hand to spell out letters in the air. They appeared and vanished again in bursts of fireworks and fluorescent flame. “U-N-I-Q-U-E.”

“As I, apparently, am not,” Damian said, seizing upon the Chaos Lord’s restored calm and good cheer. “Who is this ‘he’ you mentioned? If I’m to be pitted against him as entertainment in your eyes, might I at least know his name?”

“Nuh-uh-uh,” the Witch-Boy scolded. He wagged his finger at Damian. “No spoilers. That’s not how the game is played.”

Keenly aware of the boy’s power once more, Damian gritted his teeth and pressed on. “Well, if there are to be rules, shouldn’t I at least know what those are?”

Klarion sucked in a deep breath, drawing himself up along with his inhalation as though preparing for some great speech…and instead just toppling backward, flopping onto an extravagant fainting couch that suddenly appeared beneath him, though similarly floating in the air.

“I can’t recall at the moment.” His now-faint voice drifted up from where he lay buried amid a mountain of pillows. “I’ve had a terribly exhausting day. But you’re supposed to be a detective, remember? Go…I don’t know. Detect things.”

He flapped an arm at Damian dismissively, and then crooked a finger into a twirling motion that set his divan to spinning in lazy circles.

“Isn’t life grand?” Klarion sighed fondly. “With all its twists and turns, its eddies and swirls. I mean, take the two of us. Scant hours ago, we were mortal enemies, and just look at us now.”

The Witch-Boy lazily rolled his head to the side as the couch drifted to bring him face-to-face with Damian. His lips spread wide in that malevolent, wicked grin of his once again, but somehow it managed to be even wider than any he’d shown off before. His eyes blazed with a hellish inner light, and his voice, when next he spoke, dropped deep into a demonic register. A bass that boomed forth and set Damian’s very bones to rattling.

“Ain’t we got fun?”

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steve0discusses · 4 years

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Yugioh Ep 29 S4: Joey Wheeler, Dead Again

It took me kind of a while to get around to recapping again, been some drama on this end due to a couple natural disasters all happening in conjunction with eachother, but thankfully we are back in the green (sort of) there’s still wildfire smoke out my window but at least...at least the fires aren’t getting any bigger.

And it’s a shame we didn’t get to it sooner, because this episode has so many wild things in it, I don’t even know where to start. There was a lot of dueling, so I didn’t have to cap a whole lot...but even within such few caps, there’s some stuff to talk about. Like first off, the Kaiba’s inability to walk five feet without getting attacked by someone.

Seto still winning Brother of the year award even after nearly shooting his bro with real ass lightning. Because remember, this lightning is 100% real. None of these are holograms.

And by the way, a “hologram” just grabbed Mokuba with real ass hands and Seto was like “Clearly still a hologram!” Because that is how deep his denial runs.

Anyways, this is where the Kaibas will be until the remainder of this episode, so we’ll just leave them where they are.

(read more under the cut)

Back at the duel between Mai and Joey, we’re slowly working out what it is the Orichalcos even does.

We have had very little indication you can break the Oricalchos control on people’s minds up to this duel, but because Joey showed heart and bravery or whatever--he’s been slowly chipping away at Mai’s crusty, neon green, outer shell.

(I had a littttle bit of a hunger for some Taco Bell Baja Blast, not gonna lie. A little bit tempted because of that weird color. And now that I’ve eaten popcorn, I am 80% itching to drive to Taco Bell and make some mistakes. But I won’t.)

Comparing this to Pharaoh and Kaiba and their Oricalchos duels (even Rex and Weevil’s) it kind of makes you wonder why this never happened.......to anyone else? I mean, obviously it’s plot reasons, but it would have been a little neat to have some character development for the other villains.

But this unnecessary duel to the death between Joey and Mai spends most of the time screaming about how deep and real their love friendship is. Just a whooole bunch of aggressive friendzoning for the lady who just aggressively hates everyone.

(Haven’t seen much of Yugioh Abridged because it’s spoiler territory but everyone who retweets Joey stuff puts “Brooklyn Rage” in there so I have learned the lingo through osmosis.)

So because, someone’s absolutely going to die, lets start going through all of the flashbacks to remind the audience to feel something when they biff it. Lets recite the times we all spent with Mai.

Remember how they brushed Mai under the rug for 3 seasons, and now that they actually need her, they’re shooting themselves in the foot because there’s actually very little evidence that they like eachother at all?

But they do show those few times they hung out: the camping trip where they almost got burned alive by PaniK, that time that Joey caught her smelling her own cards, that time that Yugi had a panic attack because he was convinced Pharaoh would murder her during a card game, that time that she almost got hit by a fireball and then Joey jumped in front of her.

PS, that fireball scene--they keep going back to that fireball scene but they cut out the part where, yes, Joey jumped in front of her--but then Yugi jumped in front of Joey, and then Yami took over and was like EFF YUGI DAMN IT while he got pegged with fireballs. Like...c’mon, Yugioh, there was a lot of fanservice in that particular episode, and you’re leaving out a majority of the ships.

Partial truth, Yugioh--you’re telling partial truths. If we’re saying friendzoning is a good replacement for some sort of romance, then this show is just a giant geometric shape of “who might possibly like who if they weren’t so addicted to friendship.” This show has “friendship” as the underlying tagline of every episode with every person.

In the process of removing romance--they accidentally made SO MUCH MORE romantic implications in this show. I just feel like this backfired in so many ways. Or...maybe this was exactly what they wanted. And by “they” I mean that one writer who stans Seto Kaiba in the back--just sitting there in the corner of the writer’s room tapping his fingers together and cackling like an evil villain. He knows what he did. Genius mastermind, slipping in his favorite ships by making every ship Yugioh-legal.

And, also the Joey/Mai duel was a lot of this type of questionable content:

Joey Freakin Wheeler.

So I forgot if I mentioned this, but my bro had this friend in college who go struck by lightning not once, but multiple times in his life. He lived in like Virginia or North Carolina--one of the monsoon States, and he’d go on this hike to the top of this mountain--and on two different occasions at the same spot, he got stuck by freakin lightning. So like...Joey Wheelers do exist. There are people out there who just...

They’re just lightning rods wherever they go and their brain is somewhat scrambled eggs because of it.

(PS fun fact I googled just now because I couldn’t remember which state Virginia was, a Virginian by the name of Roy Sullivan was supposedly struck by lightning 7 different times and survived all of them. The more you know. ((PS still on the Google deep dive and the same guy also claimed to have been attacked by a bear 22 times (he’s a park ranger, so that checks) and once he was attacked by a bear immediately after he got struck by lightning which is like some pretty pro strats by said bear.)))

But like...kinda weird that Joey’s now kinda into this, and got super into it during a lovers friendship quarrel.

Anyway, all things come to an end, so Mai decides after enough cards have been played and Joey is clearly about to die...maybe it’s time to just accept not being 1st in the world in cards. Which...would have meant she should have been playing Yugi during this duel but, wtv. She clearly wants to be mad at Joey, specifically.

And I think the show didn’t do such a good job explaining why she was focused on Joey and not any of the other duelists until the very end, but we’ll get there. We’ll finally get to an explanation of why she was so fixated on Wheeler, we just have to wait for him to die first.

Because after the lightning strikes, and after putting so much effort into punching Valon right before this...Joey is too sleepy to continue.

So he’s just gonna die here instead...

2nd time he’s passed out in a duel by the way. Remember that Joey almost beat Marik, but was too damn sleepy after the electrocution? Same situation here. Look at that parallel.

Reminder that Joey STARTED this duel.

It’s like when you’re playing a game with a toddler and then it just passes out halfway and without any warning with it’s face just flat into the carpet.

Anyway, Mai grabs him in her arms sobbing all over him like she just did with Valon and it’s like...damn, this girl can just turn it off and on huh? Like she’s only 100% or -100% when it comes to the relationship meter, huh? No in between?

Mmmm cue that irony that Yugioh loves so much, this entire duel was unnecessary, because all you had to do was yoink that necklace.

Really the solution to dealing with a lot of assholes in Yugioh, to be honest.

This really is what Seto says in the show, by the way--a glitch. I like that Seto does not accept that dragons can feel sadness, and is just ITCHING to patch that out in the next release of duel monsters. I imagine that he’ll make a meeting once this is all over with his code team and at the top of the list will be the demand “Make The Dragons Stop Crying.” triple underlined, bold, and in bright red font. The entire code team will side eye eachother, unsure if this is a literal bug or something that Seto just hears all the time but no one else can hear.

So back at the Joey death fort, Mai decides to finally illustrate with words why she had to go so hard on killing Joey wheeler.

It was because she saw his kindness and his help as a weakness and a failure on her part. Mai, who always wants to be independent and in charge, could not accept that someone else had saved her or would want to save her. Which was apparently why she decided to peace out back at the end of the Marik arc.

It’s a bit of a complicated character for a kid’s show, I’m not sure how many kids understood the pride situation here, but it’s nice they stuck in something that wasn’t just “I want to be the best.” It was more that she didn’t want to be helped in order to become the best.

(PS, there’s this flashback scene where Joey’s like “bye” as she drives away and it was unintentionally a very awkward and funny cut and I may grab that little quip. I have to cap a couple of animations, tbh, I haven’t done that in a while)

So, now that she is fully recovered, she decides to complete the parallel of when Joey saved her in a death coma and now she will do the same (although it is SLIGHTLY different since in this version she kind of absolutely killed Joey Wheeler but...still works). She decides to do the job these stupid boys have not been able to do for the entirety of this season.

(these boots are REALLY well drawn, by the way. OBSESSED with Mai’s boots.)

If only she swooped up Pharaoh and just stuck him on the back of her bike to get this final fight going.

But Pharaoh’s too busy getting lost in San Francisco, and stumbling upon Joey’s dead body.

That this is the season where Yami can do nothing right and it just keeps happening.

No idea how we’re going to resurrect Joey in so short a period of time, but we’re completely out of spooky necklaces, so I guess we can’t do the Pharaoh solution to just...stick him back in there.

Anyways, I’m off to recover from the trauma of my house burning down last week, so I’m gonna go eat a pint of ice cream while I dream of a life before quarantine (was there a time before quarantine? I honestly don’t remember)

If you just got here this is a link to these in chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#ygo #yugioh #recap #episode recap #photo recap #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Mai Valentine #Tea Gardner #Tristan Taylor #Dartz #The Kaiba's #they were there for a few seconds #and just a million flashbacks to make my life as a recapper much much easier #S4 #Ep29

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f4liveblogarchives · 3 years

Text

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #239

Thur Dec 17 2020 [10:52 PM] Umbramatic: :O [10:52 PM] Wack'd: I'm gonna guess Batman. You'd never expect that

[10:53 PM] Umbramatic: its the spanish inquisition [10:54 PM] Wack'd: So this mystery guest is a woman with short black hair, having come to see the Four all the way from Arizona on a matter of life or death. She also mentions in thought balloons that

"It's been so long--so many years since we last saw each other. I wonder if he ever thinks of me--of us."

[10:55 PM] Bocaj: I don't think I know of anyone with black hair [10:55 PM] Wack'd: Lucky for her, especially given it's the dead of night, the Four's little corner of the Baxter now has a receptionist. Uh. Kinda.

[10:57 PM] Wack'd: Reed meanwhile has been up for three days straight trying to fix the current Ben related-fuckup. He blamed himself, of course. Sue tries to reassure him that Ben probably doesn't hold him accountable [10:58 PM] Wack'd: Huh!

[10:58 PM] Wack'd: You know what? Fair dues. I did not see this coming. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: Doctors Hate Her! [10:59 PM] Bocaj: I always thought of Aunt Petunia not appearing until later [10:59 PM] Bocaj: In my mind she was sort of a the ghost for a while in the sense of sir not appearing [10:59 PM] Wack'd: I mean hey, twenty years is a hell of a while. [10:59 PM] maxwellelvis: As an aside, from what I remember of Ben's wedding, it looks like Aunt Petunia started aging in real time as if the Four had gotten their powers NOW as in 1982 [11:00 PM] Wack'd: "Doctors Hate Her!" Funny you say that max because Ben describes Petunia as a "genuine country doctor." [11:00 PM] maxwellelvis: Ha! [11:01 PM] Wack'd: So Petunia meets the gang. Sue mentions she was expecting someone older, which Petunia takes in stride [11:02 PM] Wack'd: It turns out Petunia married into the family. She, uh. Well. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: Ben's Uncle Jake got into an auto accident, which killed his wife. Petunia, then a student nurse, became his medical student, and then his wife. [11:02 PM] Wack'd: That...sure is a course of events! [11:03 PM] Bocaj: 😬 [11:03 PM] Bocaj: That feels like it fits into a trend with Byrne [11:03 PM] Wack'd: Doesn't it just. (Though I will again point out he is not responsible for Sue having been creepily young when she and Reed hooked up. That's Lee.) [11:04 PM] maxwellelvis: I can see why Slott decided to retcon Aunt Petunia into the grandmotherly type for the wedding. [11:04 PM] Bocaj: Oh now I know where MCU Aunt May has absorbed life force from [11:04 PM] Wack'd: So the "life or death" matter involves her home out in Arizona with Jake. The whole town is in danger of being "frightened to death." [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: So call Mystery Incoporated [11:05 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh wait, this is 1982, Mystery Inc.'s broken up. [11:06 PM] Wack'd: So. Uh. This is Uncle Jake.

[11:06 PM] Wack'd: And this is Aunt Petunia.

[11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, she'd have to have a few more gray hairs than that if she's known Ben since he was a boy, I think. [11:07 PM] Wack'd: She does not seem to have. [11:08 PM] Wack'd: So the Four arrive in Benson, Arizona, and the narration informs us that Ben had been the only one who approved of Jake marrying Petunia, and. [11:09 PM] maxwellelvis: That's what all the instances of Ben invoking her name had led me to believe. [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Look I want to take for granted this is messed up and move on but the damn book seems dead set against me doing this. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, anyways, I guess that means we've hit the OTHER side of John Byrne's run. [11:10 PM] maxwellelvis: Aspect, perhaps [11:10 PM] Wack'd: Sue mentions we don't know much about Ben's past. Ben says his mom and died died when he was a teen and Jake raised him. [11:10 PM] Wack'd: (We don't really know much of Reed's past at this point, though I am given to understand this will also change in the near future.) [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: This part is just Byrne telling Steve Gerber he can fuck off. [11:11 PM] Wack'd: Gerber, I assume, would instruct Bryne to get in line. [11:12 PM] Wack'd: Racism? Anyone want some racism? Anyone think what this story could really use, right about now, is some racism?

[11:13 PM] Bocaj: Eesh [11:13 PM] maxwellelvis: (Gerber I think was one of the first writers to use the "Ben grew up on Yancy St." backstory) [11:14 PM] maxwellelvis: (Unless he didn't write that issue of Marvel Two-In-One, in which case it would probably be Roy Thomas that Byrne was dismissing here) [11:16 PM] maxwellelvis: (I would look this up, but I physically cannot get to my Essential 2-in-1 collection atm) [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So Ruth's child assistant(?) Wendy is upset that Ruth, rather than just appreciating the arrowhead, started a whole excavation. She has fond memories of this place because when her mom was sick they'd come to the site and collect rocks and whatnot. [11:16 PM] Wack'd: So that's not ominous.

[11:17 PM] Wack'd: We skip forward to that night, where two of Ruth's more non-child students are doing some late-night archeology. A mist comes at them and then BAM! Scared to death! [11:18 PM] Wack'd: MEANWHILE IN THE HIMALAYAS [11:19 PM] maxwellelvis: I was putting something in the oven, thinking "Oh man, it better not be the Miracle Man again" and then we cut to the Himalayas [11:19 PM] Wack'd: Quicksilver has been fighting some kind of war, apparently, while Crystal--suffering complications from a half-mutant half-Inhuman pregnancy--is being treated by whoever this guy is.

[11:20 PM] Wack'd: Pietro here is apparently the only guy in all of Attilan who's not come down with some sort of mysterious disease. [11:20 PM] maxwellelvis: He looks like the Leader, if the Leader was slowly turning into a raisin. [11:20 PM] Wack'd: And Attilan is being destroyed, leaving Pietro as their only hope. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh yeah, he just looks like the PICTURE of health here, don't he [11:21 PM] Umbramatic: gfrtvtigyhhuihjio;opkp [11:21 PM] Bocaj: The funny thing is that mutant and inhuman genes apparently cancel out [11:22 PM] Bocaj: Or Crystal and Pietro won the silliest genetic lottery [11:22 PM] Wack'd: Back in Arizona, Reed is having no luck cracking the case, while Frankie and Wendy get some bonding time in

[11:23 PM] Wack'd: So, uh. Because this story just did not have enough going on, it turns out Wendy's dad is beating her. [11:23 PM] Umbramatic: oh [11:24 PM] Wack'd: Frankie tries to intervene but Wendy begs her to back off, so she figures there's nothing to be done and leaves. [11:24 PM] Bocaj: Comic are you sure you're up to this content [11:25 PM] Wack'd: I feel like Reed should be caught a bit more flatfooted by someone he looks up to intellectually telling him he can't fix things with guesswork.

[11:26 PM] Wack'd: Sue and Ben want to take action of some kind but Reed points out that, uh, they can't really punch their way out of this one. [11:27 PM] maxwellelvis: I'd make more scooby-doo jokes, but John Byrne deciding to put a Very Special Episode in here has kind of made that feel... not so fun anymore. [11:28 PM] Wack'd: That night, Wendy sneaks out of her house to go talk to the mists. Turns out that’s who her wonderful friends are. [11:30 PM] Wack'd: I think she wants to beg them for mercy? The narration boxes get kinda cryptic. Anyway if that's what she's done, it reeeaaally doesn't work.

[11:30 PM] Wack'd: "What was that about not being able to fight our way out?" [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I think Slott revisited some of this [11:32 PM] Bocaj: I vaguely remember mists and gremlins when Franklin and Valeria were staying with aunt petunia post wedding [11:33 PM] Bocaj: But as it was the same story where Sue made Doom naked on a live broadcast the details escape me [11:33 PM] Wack'd: So on top of these weird things the entire town is now also set on fire and also in a giant windstorm. The Four put out the fires but the damage is done and most of the town decides to evacuate. [11:33 PM] Umbramatic: oh yes that one [11:35 PM] Wack'd: what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

[11:36 PM] maxwellelvis: Oh of COURSE Byrne has Reed sympathize with an abusive parent. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: Okay so for starters, because this is the thing I'm the least mad about, everything about this resolution is fucking nonsense. We know basically nothing about any of the other people who got "frightened to death" and so as the readers had no ability to draw upon our own knowledge of their morality or why they might not be able to handle seeing visions of their worst selves. [11:37 PM] Wack'd: From there we get to the fact that, for all the ways Ruth and Reed protested earlier, this is a massive pile of assumptions with absolutely no backing in fact or evidence. [11:37 PM] Umbramatic: geez [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Speaking of Ruth, she said that the arrowhead was crucial, and Ben speculated that may be the excavation released the spirits and they needed to be re-buried. They don't out right say it, but this may as well be a "ancient Indian burial ground" plot. [11:39 PM] Umbramatic: yeesh [11:39 PM] Wack'd: And from there we get, yes, Reed saying that their job is not to judge people, therefore they can't do anything about an abusive parent. Which is frankly just moral cowardice and also really gross. [11:40 PM] maxwellelvis: And also a grim portent of things to come in this era. [11:41 PM] Wack'd: And so the story ends, with. I think the implication is that Wendy asked her "friends" to take care of her dad for her? Which is okay, I guess, but doesn't really fix the way everybody else reacts to this.

[11:42 PM] Wack'd: The story is also just plain all over the place. There's absolutely no reason for the characters who get the Four involved in the plot to be Ben's Aunt Petunia--except-- [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Oh. The whole town got judged. [11:43 PM] Wack'd: Did John Bryne really just write a plot where a bunch of cosmic arbiters of justice basically give the okay to marrying your student [11:43 PM] maxwellelvis: RED FLAG [11:44 PM] Wack'd: This a lot, huh. [11:45 PM] Wack'd: Well, maybe whatever Inhumans nonsense is going on will help clear my head.

#1982 #John Bryne #The Main Book

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setsureadsshit · 4 years

Text

Lost At Sea: A List of WIP’s I am finally letting go of [ Part 1 ]

Finally going through my subscriptions on AO3 and clearing out the fics that haven’t gotten an update in too many years or have been orphaned since the last time I looked at them but what chapters were posted are worth reading as long as you don’t mind being left frustrated. Could also be considered a final plea and/or thank you/love letter to the authors for having written them at all, I don’t know how many parts this will take because I have like, 7ish pages of subscriptions on AO3 lmao so just, you know *hand waves* settle in the ride with me.

With the Bodies in the Gutter by TriDom

Summary: Derek works with the FBI to dismantle sex trafficking rings from the inside out. It's grueling, but he never believed that the wear on him outweighed the good he and his team did. Until he finds his mate with a new group that had been taken. He jeopardizes everything to get him out, only to have to turn his back on him before his mate is even awake.

Last Update: 2017

Fandom & Main Pairing: Teen Wolf; Sterek

Personal Notes: At 16 chapters it gives you enough progress to kinda feel satisfied. It dropped off at a kind of lull before ramping up into the next crisis action which also helps I think. Only mildly unsatisfying for not getting to the true “happy ending” but I’m not mad about it.

Where Is My Bright Future by Steamcraft

Summary: au: Derek and Stiles meet at a German camp.

“My name…” The boy trails, then grimaces. “Stiles Stilinski.”

Derek’s eyebrows rise. “Stiles. Nickname?”

Stiles nods. “You English, how is it… Butcher.”

That surprises a laugh out of him. Stiles looks startled at the sound, heart racing, before he tentatively smiles.“You laugh, but its true.”

Last Update: 2015

Fandom & Main Pairing: Teen Wolf; Sterek

Personal Notes: I read this a long time ago and I remember it being both really good and really heavy but also getting a little lost in the middle. It’s got 14 chapters though so, like the fic above I feel like it’s a satisfactory read even if there isn’t a real ending.

When Sparks Fly by LunaCanisLupus_22

Summary: “Derek,” Stiles thunders. “Were you ever going to tell me your house is trying to hook us up?”

Derek's head snaps up, eyes wide and scenting the evident crackle of magic in the air.

Or the one where spark!Stiles moves into an enchanted apartment block owned by a grumpy alpha and is completely oblivious to the building's efforts to matchmake them.

Last Update: 2016

Fandom & Main Pairing: Teen Wolf; Sterek

Personal Notes: This one is a little harder to categorize because it started out as a like, 2 chapter completely completed fic - and then the author came back and added more? So it’s unclear if they plan on coming back and adding more again since they’ve left it uncompleted but you know *hand waves*. In any event, it’s a definite good read, one of my favorites, highly recommended.

Where A Mask, Be A Hero by A_Whistful_Writer

Summary: Oliver Queen had started a crusade in his father’s name, alone. It was bitter, harsh and unrelenting. He was left with scars and bruises that only seemed to double with each passing day. But then he found companions in his fight. Laurel, Diggle, Felicity, Roy. They made things more bearable, and for a while, he was happy, even though there was a gaping hole in his heart. Something was missing.And that was when Oliver met Barry Allen.

Last Update: 2018

Fandom & Main Pairing: Arrow/The Flash ; Flarrow

Personal Notes: It’s honestly just a retelling of the first however many seasons of each show but with a little more OTP filling. The later chapters kinda lost the plot and I was hoping it’d pick up again and really start rolling but I’m throwing in the towel on this one.

The Fault Is Not In Our Stars - Orphan

Summary: After a long and wretched campaign, Asgard has conquered Jotunheim. To ensure King Laufey's cooperation and later friendship between the kingdoms, Asgard takes home the apparent heir to the throne, Loki Laufeyson. Loki is, unfortunately, anything but complacent.Based on the art by stunningly talented Wantstobelieve: http://wantstobelieve.tumblr.com/post/18102496999/guess-who-just-watched-troy-again-yup-that

Last Update: 2013

Fandom & Main Pairing: Thor ; Thunderfrost

Personal Notes: I had hoped this would be a case of the author regaining their writing inspiration with a new Thor movie on the horizon and promptly forgot about it for...a long time, lmao. I’m glad that the author chose to orphan the story instead of simply deleting it because it may only be 8 chapters but they’re very well written and the story is compelling, even unfinished.

Time Will Crawl by coldhope

Summary: Inspired by one of kaciart's amazing drawings: the Winter Soldier faced with a pre-serum Steve Rogers and--conversely--1940s Bucky Barnes coming home to find Captain America lurking in the kitchen.

Last Update: 2014

Fandom & Main Pairing: Captain America (MCU) ; Stucky

Personal Notes: It’s only two chapters which isn’t long enough to *really* get attached to something but the concept was interesting enough to hold my attention/hope that it’d get continued.

The What’s And How’s of Raising Werewolves by kit_cat

Summary: Stiles is twenty-five and shares his bed with a five-year-old werewolf who calls him mommy. This isn't how he expected his life to turn out.Or in which Derek is a kindergarten teacher, the Hales are alive, Danny is overly romantic for a five-year-old, and Stiles has somehow Magicked his way into being the legal guardian of three werelings all under the age of ten... and may or may not be on the run from a league of werewolf kidnapping hunters.

Last Update: 2017

Fandom & Main Pairing: Teen Wolf ; Sterek

Personal Notes: So I’m...technically not giving up on this one since it’s gone 3 years between updates before and really like this story so I’m going to hold onto this hope for a little while longer but it’s a very very slim hope. This is a fic that does NOT leave off with a satisfactory feeling even though it’s 9 chapters in, those 9 chapters really are just the place setting and maybe a charcuterie board or two while guests mingle but you could start smelling the main course from the kitchen.

Trust by trufflemores

Summary: "Barry reels Oliver in for a hug. Oliver grants him three seconds, pulling back with his own irrepressible smile, knowing he looks like young-and-in-love which is ridiculous because he's not. Maybe, a tiny, impulsive part of him argues, he wants to be."

Last Update: 2017

Fandom & Main Pairing: The Flash/Arrow ; Flarrow

Personal Notes: I have spent I don’t KNOW how many months on and off trying to find this fic again, only to discover I’ve had it the whole fucking time! Specifically, the way trufflemores describes how they interact - giving words to all of the silent conversations they have, how they translated Barry and Oliver’s body language to so perfectly into writing. Like, even after I stopped watching The Flash (and had long since stopped watching Green Arrow), I still watched the crossover episodes because watching Barry and Oliver (and later Kara) interact was always my favorite thing. Honestly, watching both teams together was always so much fun - the episodes were just fun, but I digress. I don’t honestly remember where this fic leaves off but it was fairly episodic so I don’t really know that it needs an end per say, reading it shouldn’t leave you too dissatisfied.

The Propinquity Effect by SwiftEmera

Summary: Oliver Queen pretty much ignored his bisexuality, until he clapped eyes on Barry Allen.Unfortunately, Barry is a social pariah, and Oliver's mother is currently running for governor, so Oliver is pretty much trapped in the bisexual closet, unable to come out and associate himself with Barry for the fear of tarnishing his mother's campaign. However, when their teacher pairs the boys up to work on a Psychology project based around the subject of sexual attraction, Oliver's willpower to keep his distance is strongly tested.

Last Update: 2015

Fandom & Main Pairing: The Flash/Arrow ; Flarrow

Personal Notes: I’ve been re-reading most of these as a final send off but this one I’m just not in the mood for unresolved angst. It’s really well written, the characters are really well adapted for the AU, but just knowing it isn’t finished and probably wont ever be I don’t want to invest my energy into something that doesn’t have a conclusion - for better or worse and this is the kind of fic I *need* to have an end.

#Sterek #Teen Wolf #Stiles Stilinski x Derek Hale #Arrow #The Flash #Flarrow #Barry Allen x Oliver Queen #Thor #Thunderfrost #Thor Odinson x Loki Laufyeson #Captain America (MCU)#Stucky #Steve Rogers x Bucky Barns #Lost At Sea

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buffpidgey · 5 years

Note

Apparently I haven't read enough 00s fma/hp crossovers, because I don't really know what the formula was, and now I'm curious--what's the formula, roughly, and how does aystiagi violate/subvert it?

Ahhh my cat walked across my keyboard and deleted my first attempt at answering this.

Ok, big points: I’m probably also drawing on other anime crossovers in my generalizations because oh damn. Were there a lot of them and oh damn. Did I read a lot of them.

But a lot of these crossovers have a core of the main characters coming in and very often making friends with Harry and Co. Maybe there’s a bit of standoffishness between Harry and Ed, but it ends up with everyone learning everything.

There’s also always always the overdramatic boggart scene. Not that I don’t like a good boggart! But a lot of times people have given boggarts way more power than I think they have/should have. These are creatures who hide and use shapeshifting to try and SCARE people off. If they’re scaring, they’re bluffing, and bluffs are, by their nature, lies that can’t do what they’re promising.

Anyway, aside from Cerulean Silver and Amber Gold and its echos where Ed is contracted to protect DRACO instead of Harry, the other common variation is where either Ed or Roy are professors at Hogwarts.

I never read many of those; I just can’t buy Ed as a teacher of people his age, or if he’s aged up I’m not really interested in that, and I’m not interested enough in Roy that his presence alone out of the FMA cast would last me through the story.

Centering in on the ‘Ed as bodyguard’ subset of these crossovers, it seems that Ed is folded into the Trio’s plotting very easily, that he’s willing to work with people in the Order, and that his English is already good.

Looking at FMA now I’m realizing that Ed isn’t actually great at People? Like, if he doesn’t have a goal in mind he’s pleasant, but he’s suffered the exact kind of phenomenon as real life kids who were in gifted programs- he’s got all the book learning, but his interpersonal skills are. Not great.

(See: how when a dude insults Winry’s automail he decides he needs to sabotage the arm wrestling contest. True it’s a very shonen thing to do, but not super mature, especially in how he goes from 0 to 60 at the drop of a hat there)

I think people have overestimated how interested Ed would be in Harry’s life in general? Ed’s NOT interested in people. Or he tries not to be. He’s hyper-focused on his goal, and any help he gives on the way to that is almost incidental. It’s overhearing one muttered phrase that convinces Ed to save the mines, and it’s Cornello’s own escalations that pushed Ed to overthrow him.

Though I will admit that if Ed learned that the guy was aiming to start a war or something, he would have put his foot down then too.

So sure this Harry kid has a guy after him, but the guy doesn’t have the stone, there are no rumors that would lead him to the stone, so Ed is going to focus on trying to find THAT as much as he can while protecting this Harry kid while they’re inside what is considered one of the most well protected places in the country, if not the planet.

Another thing that I know I do differently is having Ed not having issue with magic. A ton of these fics love to have Ed baffled and indignant at the issue that magic could be a THING. Which, to a certain point is fun. But I think at the end of the day trying to dissect how HP magic works in a physics sense is less fun because it’s not supposed to work like that and if the author isn’t careful it turns into a headcanon with like 2k added words describing investigative actions that could have been used to build narrative tension, but that’s just my opinion.

There are more notes I could make - like how people often throw Ed through The Gate to get him into crossovers and that adds a huge layer of confusion (which can be good or just messy depending), but you asked for a rough outline and this is already getting long.

So.... what I do different in AYSTAGI....

I think the biggest thing that I’ve done is that I’m focusing less on a kind of ideal where everyone would get along, and more of an emphasis on the negative qualities of Ed an Harry’s interpersonal skills at this point in their lives.

I’m also trying to balance these failings on each of the boys’ parts. They’re both making mistakes- though I think I should into balancing out Harry’s part of it a little more. They’re both unreliable narrators in their own ways.

Harry is so damn fed up with everyone not telling him everything that when his new Order mandated buddy doesn’t immediately get on the same wavelength as him and his friends, he sees it as another betrayal, and he’s not entirely wrong. Harry is at a very awkward place as a protagonist at this point in the story, because aside from DA he’s very much REacting to things that are happening, and not ACTING ON things like he does in the latter half of the books.

Meanwhile, Ed has a bad habit of thinking of his age peers as “kids” even though Harry has probably seen almost as much deadly action as Ed has at this point in Ed’s career. (If Ed had been in a Basalisk-level fight before canon I think we would have heard about it.) He’s still in the bad habit of almost ignoring the people around him (like he kinda did while he was still in school), and also assuming that they’re not likely to be willing/able to understand what’ he’s trying to do/going through.

Another thing I’m TRYING to do is to have Ed mess with umbridge in a roundabout way. Inspired by the way he took down Yoki, instead of Ed being openly contemptuous (which he actually rarely is, aside from Roy and a few select villains) I think he’d be more into maneuvering umbridge into a place where she ousts herself. (This bit heavily inspired by one of the last paragraphs in “There may be some collateral damage” by metisket where it’s remarked that all of the... chaos... Ichigo had unleashed during the story would have been nearly the same if Toshiro had gone, just with “more vicious political maneuvering and fewer outright fights”.)

Whether I’ve succeeded in any of these goals/presentations is subjective, but people seem to be having fun reading my attempts!

#the birb chats #aystiagi #the birb writes #knightoftherealm

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alternative27angel · 6 years

Text

Fox Hunt

Kinda miffed with ML’s choices for the miraculous’ powers, and just frustrated in general with their writing, so decided to dust this off.

This is just a rough draft, though. Trying to hammer out some more plot details first.

They say every person comes to a crossroad in their life. A choice of two paths, one that will become the best decision you ever made, and one that you'll regret til the end of your days.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng hadn't quite decided which path her current one could be considered, but scurrying around the edge of a tower in the dead of night wasn't what her fourteen-year-old self had in mind when she'd stopped to help an old man.

A pigeon giving her the bird-version of a side-eye wasn't doing her any favors either.

"Don't mind me, Jacques, just running a little errand." She waved distractedly as she made her way over to one of the filthier windows on this side of the building. According to the schematics, the third window from the right should be the one for the file room. Would be nice if she could actually see inside to confirm, though…

Guess all she could do was hope and pray for the best, then.

Shifting her flute into a narrower shape, she jammed it underneath window and quickly levered it open. Dust and metal flooded her nose as she took in the room. The large room with file cabinets and shelves. With walls and walls of file cabinets and shelves. All most definitely filled to the brim with documents and security footage.

"Well, it's definitely the file room…" With a sigh, she made her way inside and started scanning the labels for what she needed.

2001, 1999, 1997, 1995… 1993, there we go. Now, which of the 8 boxes could it be…?

Her ears caught the sound of footsteps echoing on a staircase, charging their way up to her floor. Why would they…?

A red light blinked out of the corner of her eye, and with a groan, she turned to look at the camera she didn't even think to watch out for. Oh, Trixx was probably loving this right now.

Time for Plan B. Well, technically Plan G, but it's not like anybody else had to know that.

Still trying to keep some level of stealth (if for no other reason than to salvage her wounded pride), she whisper-yelled the command, "Fox Sense," and tapped her flute against her head.

Immediately, a strong smell of plastic assaulted her senses, and her eyes were drawn to the box on the highest shelf. She crawled her way up and yanked off the lid, rifling through the tapes as quickly as she could without making too much noise. A shock raced across her palm, prompting her to look at the label on the tape currently in her hand.

15/03/1993 'Frelon Roi Goes Dark'

Gotcha.

Moving fast, she tossed the lid on, slid the box back into place, and leapt over to the window just as footsteps reached door. By the time the security staff burst into the file room, she was already outside and running across a roof two buildings over.

Giddiness overcame her as she realized that–despite screwing up with the camera–she'd managed to make a clean escape with her loot. And no birdbrain in sight! Looks like her luck was finally turning around-

Shwing!

Unable to help the little scream that escaped her, she quickly leapt back from the hardened feather embedded in the roof mere inches from where she'd been a second ago. A rustle in the wind was all the warning she had before a dark blue shape was dropping down on her from a nearby building, forcing her to fling herself off her own in an effort to get away.

Down in the street, she sprinted a few yards to put some distance between them before pivoting to face her pursuer, whom had quickly made his way down to the lower level as well.

"Shouldn't you be in bed, young lady?" drawled a familiar voice, casual tone belying the blackened eyes latching onto the tape in her hand and bringing a pinched look to his masked face.

If Marinette had any hope of getting out of this with the tape in her possession, she could not engage in a direct fight. Time and again, he managed to snatch every piece of evidence she had ever managed to find, and she couldn’t afford to lose this one too. They needed this.

A quiet beeping from her necklace reminded her that she was also on borrowed time. She scanned her surroundings as subtly as possible whilst distracting the Peacock.

“Oh, Jay Bleu. The sky is clear, the breeze is sweet, and the city of Paris is at peace. Can’t a girl just enjoy a beautiful night every once in a while?”

There was an alley two buildings down. Narrow spaces wouldn’t do her many favors, but if she remembered right, that alley was a shortcut to the Seine…

Taking a menacing step forward, Jay shifted a couple more feathers into his hands. “Young women need their beauty sleep, my dear. That’s why everyone is currently resting safe in their homes.” Sirens sounded in the distance, tugging a smirk onto his lips. “Well, most of them, anyway. I’m afraid someone has disturbed our esteemed officers’ sleep.”

“Well, that hardly has anything to do with me,” she blithely denied, keeping eye-contact with him as she slowly circled around him and tightened her grip on her flute. She had to time it right, or he would be on her in no time.

Jay Bleu rolled his eyes. “Fox, let’s not waste our time tonight. We both know how this ends. Just give me the tape and go on home, before your time runs out.”

She stiffened, just as another beep sounded in her ears.

A sigh escaped him, letting his eyes close briefly before he fixed her with a flat look. “Even if I couldn’t hear it, that necklace of yours is painfully obvious, blinking light and all.”

Almost there. “Come on, can’t you let me have a win for once, Jay?” she pleaded, lacing her voice with false sweetness. “It’s not gentlemanly to keep denying a lady like this. If you're not careful, girls might start hating you~”

He rolled his eyes a second time.

So close. She shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet. “Also, the name isn’t Fox.”

Almost.

She gestured at the pot of red flowers next to her. “It’s Camellia!” she stated, pride seeping into her tone as he took the bait, glancing over at it.

Now.

“Those aren’t-” Thwack! Her flute struck hard at his ankle, and down he went. “Shit!”

Not even pausing to see if he’d hit the ground, she made a break for it. First to the alley, which would hopefully have enough debris for her throw in Jay Bleu’s way. Then, it would only be a sprint to the bridge-!

A feather just barely brushed her cheek, forcing her to duck to the left and-against her better judgement-peer behind her. Jay Bleu had already gotten his feet under him and was pelting after her, a dark glare making his already intimidating gaze even more terrifying. She didn’t even hesitate to grab the nearest thing (a trashcan lid) and sling it at him.

The oof! behind her assured that she’d hit her mark, and she used the opportunity to put on an extra burst of speed, using whatever she could grab onto to fling herself even further away from her pursuer and leaving it lying in his path.

Another beep sounded, signaling that she had only two minutes left. If she didn’t make it, she was done for.

Desperation was fueling her as she burst out of the alley and sped out into the open. The cursing and crashing behind her said that Jay Bleu wasn’t far behind, so if she was going to do this, it had to be now.

Reaching into the pouch on her hip, she spun around and made eye-contact one last time with the boy behind her. Unable to resist, she smiled smugly and threw down the smoke bomb.

As smoke exploded into the air, she sprinted for the little bridge and promptly flung herself over it.

The Seine rushed up to meet her for just a second before she used her paw pads grab onto the side of the bridge and catch herself. She scrambled as quickly and quietly as possible to the underside and then waited.

Footsteps pounded overhead, reaching the middle and pausing as the boy gasped for breath. Nothing could be heard, save for the sound of his coughing every few seconds.

She held her breath and then suddenly remembered, wrapping one hand around her miraculous just before it beeped again, muffling the sound.

A few more seconds passed by, and the fox began to fear that her time would run out first. But someone must’ve been taking mercy on her, because after coughing rather hard one more time, Jay Bleu cursed and ran away, apparently having given up and simply deciding to try a random direction.

After waiting a little to see if he’d come back, she let out the breath she was holding in a big sigh of relief, shoulders beginning to relax. And just like that, orange light engulfed her and took away the fox guise, leaving simple Marinette behind.

Simple Marinette that had no way of holding onto the underside of a cement bridge.

She barely had time to scream before she fell into the river, a big splash erupting as she hit the water hard. She re-emerged, coughing and sputtering as she treaded water to keep herself afloat.

“Well,” she sighed, “that could’ve gone worse. At least I got...” Her eyes snapped open wide.

Video tape + water = OH NO!

Before she could begin to panic though, a deep, soothing voice called out, “No worries, Mari. I’ve got it.”

There, floating above her, was a little fox with large ears and slanted eyes glimmering with amusement. And in their paws was the video tape…!

Marinette couldn’t help her giggle of relief. She waved up at him in glee. “Thank God you’re here, Trixx!”

A chuckle responded back at her. “No no, you did all the work, Mari. We’re still a little rough, but this is the proof that you’ve got what it takes.” They swooped down to hover just a little in front of her face, a foxy grin aimed at her. “Congratulations on your first successful heist, Camellia!”

Marinette’s responding smile was blinding as the reality settled in. She’d finally done it! She’d finally beaten Jay Bleu and recovered her first piece of the puzzle to finding the other missing Miraculouses. She could actually do this!

“Yes!” She thrust her fists up in victory. Maybe this was the right choice after all.

#ml #miraculous swap AU #fox!marinette #miraculous ladybug #my fic #jesus i haven't written in forever #i'm so out of practice #kwami swap

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monkey-network · 6 years

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Good Stuff ~ Seven of the Season: MLP Season 8 Part I

WARNING: Do not offer me a popsicle; I’m not much a fan of them anymore. I don’t know why, really. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Since it’s on hiatus until....August, it seems (confusingly lame), wanted to look back on this current season so far since it legitimately has been almost 8 years and I’m still watching this show. Not that that’s a bad thing, but unlike Adventure Time or Archer, it doesn’t feel like it’s aged all that majorly. And really, I wanna commemorate that. Due note part 2 will be for the entire season; to kinda ease my options in the end. So here be the Top 7 BEST Episodes of the first arc of season. Seven, because it’s lucky, baby. Here we go…

7. Grannies Gone Wild

Don’t look up ‘Grannies Gone Wild’ on Google Images. Not even safesearch is safe from the bizarre shit you might find. As for the safe for work version, it feels like a ‘standard’ episode, where Rainbow’s trying to keep the apple grannies safe from hurting themselves while trying to get on a rollercoaster on its last day. Though what makes this funny is that while you could think that Rainbow Dash is at fault for biting off more than she chew, it’s really Applejack’s fault for being such an enabling overprotective mook. Seriously, everybody agrees in the episode that it’s Applejack’s fault. What makes it even funnier and put this on the list are the grannies themselves, since they remind me a lot of my grandparents (may they rest) and have no time for Rainbow’s shit throughout. While it’s low on the list for its conventionality, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Especially since this joke will forever be associated with it

6. Marks For Effort

Preferentially, hating on the character Cozy Glow like I’m Alex Jones for how suspicious she acted kept me going for this episode. As such, it’s surprising to say that this was a great episode for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Even when they don’t achieve much in the end, they have an honest goal in mind and it didn’t feel far fetched, and they band well together in teaching the Wooby friendship. Unlike their other episode this season, it never felt like they had to get in each other’s way to achieve something together. It felt like they were earning their endgame, which made it bizarre that Cozy would just sabotage her test to help them out. I mean honestly what purpose did that stand beside giving Starlight a chance to--Oooooh ho ho. DHX, you clever bastards, you wanted to make me feel for Starlight having little to her name now as the school counselor. Mmmmmhmmm, not falling for it. In any case, stopped for the Cozy Glow hatin’, seriously I’m gonna stone that wooby, stayed for the quality time with the CMC. As for you, Starlight, come back when you’re a main character.

5. The Mean Six

This was honestly a surprising episode based on how nothing and everything happened in the span of 22 minutes. Chrysalis returned, offering the most charmingly hammy performance to date. And while her plan to get the elements of harmony fails tremendously, and never really started to be honest, it was fascinating to see that she could’ve been indirectly responsible for breaking apart the mane six. If the show didn’t have to fall under the status quo, this would’ve actually been a clever way of presenting a fallout arc for the characters while Chrysalis is unaware of this, thinking she still needs to plot their downfall. The mean six, or Negagangers, were utilized much better here than when Discord tried this in season 2. And somehow I actually felt for Starlight getting the short end of the stick (maybe that was because she wasn’t the one who brought everyone together in the end, but who knows). The only downside is that, if you’ve seen this show plenty of times, you know what’s gonna happen and it lacks the specialty. Though it does make up for its reasonable message, the Archer-esque way the characters play off each other, and that ending scene where the Negagangers having their faces melted is the 2nd most metal thing this show has done. And no, I’m not gonna show that, for I’d like more dreams than nightmares.

4. The Break Up Breakdown

This at first felt like a conventional Valentine’s day episode (in May) with it all just amounting to misunderstandings.... made even crazier when it involves Big Mac accidentally giving a child his romantic gift, eavesdropping on his lover, said lover getting dirty, and Discord taking Big Mac and a child dragon to a swinger’s club, all to get back to LARPing. And honestly, that is what elevated this episode, crazy shit happens and it’s not so much Discord’s fault, though he is essentially what makes this episode work so well with the fact that he cares for none of this yet is on top in the end (phrasing). Plus my heart did skip a beat when Big Mac and Sugar Belle reconciled in the end, giving me memories of the good rom coms of yore like Moonstruck and Muriel’s Wedding, except without the ABBA. And again, Discord nonchalant attitude toward everyone else’s lovestruck ideals of Valentines with his newfound obsession with D&D kept this entertaining and worth coming back.

3. The Maud Couple

As it is unfortunate that Maud’s new boyfriend will forever be named Mud Fuckstick, Fuckstick is honestly the best character in this episode and just makes this episode so entertaining; especially on the grounds that he does little to nothing else to jumpstart the plot beyond being around and being methodical with his wordplay. The fact that Pinkie is legitimately fuming at Fuckstick potentially taking her sister away is ironically hilarious. Episode would’ve been higher up if not for that one scene of Pinkie screaming her head off for 4 seconds. I don’t mind Pinkie spazzing out, but those 4 seconds was a screeching convulsion, like christ. Plus, I realized something: Pinkie can be really selfish and mostly cares about the idea of caring for others’ feelings and use the self esteem she gets as a coping mechanism for her own depression. Really, that hits pretty close to home in some aspects because you want people to be happy because that makes you happy, but when some crucial sacrifices are required from you, it can be really hard to swallow that you probably won’t be happy about it the whole time, and putting up with it will feel like as terrible an uphill battle as the thought of not doing anything.................................heheheh, Bazonger!

2. Fake it ‘Til You Make It

Honestly, this episode is great solely because Fluttershy is great in this. It’s a titch bias since Fluttyshy’s been one of my favs since the beginning, but this episode showcases my love for her in a way. The fact that she had to put up and bullshit her way through customers’ wants and complaints were relatable enough, but seeing her actual warp her personality through her many changes to the point where she actually comes off as threatening was....somewhat moving for this show. She essentially became an antagonist for a few moments and it never felt like her change was sorely out of the blue. Her other personalities were funny (unsurprisingly ‘Gothishy’ came out as my favorite), her raccoon fam were a valuable addition to the character dynamic, and while Rarity is generally at fault for making Fluttershy go through all that in a short matter of time, her resolve in the end was direct and empathetic as well. Also it gets point for Fluttershy saying ‘Woke’, snowflake cutie mark goth pony, and having a pretty solid message in the end.

Honorable mentions: Non Compete Clause, School Daze (Part 2)

1. Horse Play (Phrasing)

I’ll be real, I shouldn’t think this episode is great. Generally because the main character isn’t great in this. Twilight is so stubborn in this, it felt out of character. The answer was obvious, they remind us over and over again, but Twilight continuously ignored all that because of her apparent bottomless admiration for Princess Celestia? This far in the show? It is unforgivable, and annoying no doubt. It felt like she was purposefully sabotaging her own ideas after already acknowledging that Princess Celestia has performance issues, not to mention her friends trying and failing to get the stage upright. After basically being friends with Celestia for this long, it shouldn’t have been that fucking hard to be honest with her, and not treating her as if she doesn’t have a flawless bone in her body! So basically Twilight was the least favorite part of this episode and she really bogged it down a notch. But how is this #1? It’s fun. Celestia was having fun, we get to see her be ecstatic, quirky, LIVELY again for more than a few seconds. The cast was fun, reminding me of other episodes where everyone was together trying their best to not screw up too badly (see Saddle Row Review). Spike was on his sass A game. And the final act when Celestia took over made for the best ending of this season; her helping Fluttershy build confidence was a definite highlight of this series as a whole. Even the leaked version of this episode with it having no music and stock sound effects was the most fun I had with this season. It was fun. Can’t say much more.

This season didn’t so much offer its best in my eyes. The seven of this first part of the season were the seven only good ones, with the remaining ranging from boring to just pathetic. However, I will say that after this long, I say they can still pull off some wonderful episodes, on the initial and look back, so I’m certainly not counting them out just yet. And with that, I’m Roy Macintosh, and that’s all I got.

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fullmtal · 2 years

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RELATIONSHIP WISHLIST / ACCEPTING.

🌵 - parental ft. roy and possibly riza! / @wyrdify

absolutely! honestly i feel like while hohenheim kind of owns up to....his failings at the end of the promised day? obviously ed has a long steady road of forgiveness and not even actual healing considering the damage has been done on his vision of a father but that doesn’t mean he can’t have one while trying to grasp if at all that hohenheim loved him and...well, he done screwed up. but it’s so ironic that roy just straight up just says ‘i’m his superior not his father’ and yet this incredibly good guy and superior literally in his own way is encouraging and stirring edward on. edward needs that. i’ve seen and follow your roy, and i’m thankful that i see incredible talent here on this because ??? i read all your threads and hoo. you’re doing good work and justice to him. i don’t even know what’s going on sometimes and i’m still like ooh lemme read. and ask anyone i don’t bullshit my compliments.

oh, and i’ll go check if i’m following your riza, because edward definitely lets his guard down with her and he might even ask her if it’s okay to...feel like she’s a part of his ‘home.’. but let me say i can feel the love and passion you put into my favorite colonel and i have no doubt anyone else you write. passion is a key thing for me so i’m glad to see it! i’d be absolutely down for mustang being the dad edward should have had and ed just... processing that an adult isn’t failing him. that someone gives a damn and is going to stay. and it will at first if we do this? honestly freak him out internally and openly. ed is prickly and he’s cagey and flinches at affection out of a sense of ‘do i even deserve it / am i betraying my mother by being given any kind of love when i damned my mom by my sin? and i hurt so much i don’t want anyone to get inside -- ‘ so it’s just so....cool because roy and ed’s relationship is one of my all time favorites period.

you can feel how much they care while still having a good time teasing and i honestly think the top believer besides winry, granny, alphonse and damn, the entire cast, is the mustang squad. it’s so apparent how much they care for ed and al. you know either side would lay themselves in the line of fire (oop) for each other and it really is a family.

so to answer your question and thanks so much for sending? hell yeah. sign me up. let’s do some ed and roy dad/son shenanigans and if you’re up for it, ed getting the healing compassion he so desperately needs (izumi and riza handshaking? although riza might be harder because he really is terrified of spitting on his mom’s name further by what he did but....that would make it even more interesting huh? izumi kinda came when he was young enough to not become so armored, riza came by the time he put all his defenses and hackles rising. and yet he absolutely adores and respects her so yes button on that. )

sorry for the length, but yes! i’m open to all of this. i’m all good for winging plots, asks, threads, and really anything you wanna do on a wishlist or just for fun. this goes to every partner i write with. thanks a ton for sending this in and showing interest, it means a lot to me! i’m ready if you are.

#𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 * ── the truth within the truth.#wyrdify #flameleads #hawksights #oops i wasn't following riza fixed!#thanks again!#i love writing out the bonds ed has or could have.#i just want our golden boy to be happy.#and make others too.#in his gremliny way.

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thethrillof · 6 years

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MGS + coffee shop AU?

okay!!! sry this is kinda late, this was oddly hard to write out (and a touch less AU outlin-y than the others of the meme were. closer to the “standard plot” of the things maybe? but. still got long. also ignores mgsv somewhat b/c fuk i still haven’t finished it.)

david is a barista. most customers don’t know how to feel about him. he’s fucking great at making coffee, but it’s fairly offputting to have a p tall musclebound guy who always wears a slightly grimy bandanna with his uniform just repeat your order and grunt

he’s also got a snake drawn on his nametag for whatever reason. he doesn’t talk about why.

eli is not a barista. he was hired for a bit but ended up getting way too fucking competitive and constantly knocked into dave to spill the drinks he just made. it had to escalate into an actual physical before he was let the fuck go. now he just sneaks in to harass him on busy days once in a while.

eli invites a few of his “friends” to help. there’s a guy who can throw his voice to sound exactly like other customers, one that’s gigantic and covered in tats enough to frighten away the more close-minded people, and someone who constantly has his face hidden despite this being against policy.

the semi-regular “big boss” john is their father, maybe, probably? they never met him properly but david has noticed the visual and vocal similarities to himself when he stops in. he’s always noticeable because he buys like six different drinks and tries them all in one sitting.

joy is a lovely woman who works with a crew of boisterous men who all come in at once with wild orders. somehow snake manages to deal and impresses her.

hal emmerich is also a customer. he mostly hid out in the back, but eventually got to venting to the guy with the snake tag after dozens of visits p much because he mostly didn’t seem to be listening. he was utterly mortified once, months later, david spoke up about how the woman hal was going after didn’t seem too interested and had not-so-pleasant friends, and attempted some slightly awkward but genuine advice to help him let go.

hal avoided the place for a while, but. he was used to it and eventually slunk back and talked a little more. it was mostly incredibly uncomfortable smalltalk tries about anime b/c he didn’t feel comfortable with it being personal.

eventually all the coffee machines seemingly break down on a day when joy and her cobra crew are around as well as hal. and though she keeps them all chill, the frustration of that one twitchy fella in red is definitely something everyone can feel on their backs, so hal pops forward and fixes it, thank god. snake praises him a little and Oh Shit Hal Has A Crush

there’s…not exactly drama, but david is semi-dating meryl at the time. hal is internally fairly upset about this but decides no, he doesn’t care, he owes this guy for listening to him so he’ll still stick by and visit and help with tech issues even if it’s never returned.

but ofc it is, eventually. nothing wrong with meryl or david, they just fit less than they thought they did at the start and drift apart.

meryl’s uncle roy is who runs the coffee shop, as it turns out.

eventually though, an old guy who always wears leopard(?) print socks tries to take it over despite clearly having more experience in more violent venues.

eventually everyone’s let go because of it and the shop’s apparently shut down. dave ends up moving in with hal because it’s more convenient, cheaper, you know? hal’s happy about this. mostly. david has a gun collection for some reason and that’s a little weird

the whole thing feels a bit fishy to hal after a while, and david agrees. they investigate records and go back to the place themselves, and they meet a lady on a motorcycle named EVA.

all three of them work out that yeah that wasn’t legal at all, and EVA admits a bit of string-pulling, and just like canon–

–turns out adam is the reason this all fucked up. he was essentially trying to get back into contact with john, his big gay crush, and that was the only place he could both see john visiting and actually buy out. except yeah he and the people he hired for that are…not good…at this kind of work.

nobody believes it at first, but damn it that coffee shop was a good place to be at and okay to work at, so. alright. fine. hal and dave and EVA round up basically everyone to find john and adam and basically push them into a meeting together.

they manage to shove them both back into the abandoned, dusty coffee shop, and there’s absolutely a fight but also the fuckers do make up from…whatever happened. EVA never told the “kids” the exact details.

everyone gets their jobs back. hell, the place gets a security upgrade, so hal gets to work there too in the back making sure he’s keeping an eye on all the cameras, and EVA and “big boss” and “ocelot” are there almost all the time now, which is a new set of problems within itself, but they’ll manage it together.

#soundwavereporting #au

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meiizumi · 5 years

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Castle of Shikigami: An informal rant nobody asked for about my most obscure obsession to date

STOP i spent like 2 days writing this post and im only posting it on tumblr because it’s the one website i’m a member of that can hold the most text. i wanted to infodump somewhere...... read this to learn something i guess (´･ω･`)

Bad voice acting is the Peak of comedy to me, and while I was looking for something to laugh at one day, I found this game called Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. The US version of the game's dialogue is rife with machine translated text that makes no sense, and awkward voice acting to boot. They even have voice actors saying the wrong lines, voice actors speaking implied commands, and a few voice lines are left in Japanese. Apparently, Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog's current voice actor) was in this game but I don't think he's even credited?! I think I know which character he voiced but I’m not exactly sure.

The history behind this game’s localization is REALLY weird. Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro was originally an arcade bullet hell shoot em up game. The series was created by Alfa System and it was one of Alfa System’s main IPs. There are three main shmup installments and a text adventure game for the PS2, Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku. Nanayozuki was practically fanservice for whatever number of CoS fans there were back then. Each main game in the series was originally an arcade cabinet, but they were all ported to PC and home consoles. In CoS 2′s case, it came out on the PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, but only the PS2 version got localized. The western publisher, XS Games specializes in publishing quality budget titles such as “Bass Pro Shops: The Strike” for the Wii. I theorize they didn’t care too much about the actual content of CoS 2 and were more focused on selling a game quickly for a low price, so they just machine translated it and adjusted a few things. If you’re wondering if Castle of Shikigami 1 was also translated this badly, the answer is No. XS Games instead removed all the dialogue from the western release of CoS 1, and released it with the title “Mobile Light Force 2″.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘Mobile Light Force TWO’ if Castle of Shikigami 1 is the first game in the series?” If you want to know what Mobile Light Force 1 was, it’s GUNBIRD; another shmup game, but by a completely different developer than Castle of Shikigami. I don’t know why they did that. What really kills me though is that both MLF 1 and 2 use the same boxart, which is COMPLETELY unrelated to the actual contents of either game. AFJQHJFOKLJFDS look at this

There’s more hilarity behind Mobile Light Force that isn’t hard to find so you can search that up if you’re interested. But thankfully, Castle of Shikigami 3's Wii edition got more of a proper localization by Aksys Games.

Now I would bluntly say something like “stan castle of shikigami” but:

1. This series’ lore is insanely convoluted. It’s an essential part of this expansive fictional universe referred to as “Mumei Sekaikan” (I don’t know what this translates to in English) where there’s like, 7 different parallel worlds. There’s more obscure ass games and manga that are tied to this universe, and I think there’s even a tabletop RPG made based off it. Have you heard of “Gunparade March”? Most likely you haven’t; it’s an obscure video game made by Alfa System that also got adapted into an anime, and I feel it can be described as Mechas x Persona. One of the characters in CoS 2 is just one of the GPM characters going undercover to find her senpai who traveled to the CoS world. Or something like that. The 7-world universe isn’t explicitly talked about in the game but they make so many references to it without defining anything that it’s like you Must know about it. There is NO documentation in English about the Mumei Sekaikan I could find on the internet, although there is a wiki in Japanese where I got a ton of knowledge from (GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS MY TRUSTED FRIEND) I feel like I might be THE person in the United States who has the most knowledge on the Mumei Sekaikan, and I could go on another tangent talking about what I know so far (and who this one specific dude Shibamura Yuuri is) but I won’t.

2. The writing isn’t excellent and can be pretty Unwoke ™; the first game came out in 2001 and the third game came out in 2005 if that gives you a sense on what era these writers were in. As far as the games dialogue goes, the characters appear kind of flat. CoS 1 and 2 Kotaro (i refuse to use the official “Kohtaro”) is stupid and driven by JUSTICE to a point where it’s annoying. I can’t tell if Hyuga is trying to be a Ladies Man in CoS 2 and 3. Kim, a religious tae kwon do instructor, spends CoS 2 thinking about how he should atone for his sins, then he turns himself into jail at the end. Sayo’s backstory is that she was a shrine maiden raised as a “human weapon” to have no emotions and her only goal in life was to kill god and then die, something like that. However, after CoS 1, she gets a crush on Kotaro because he actually treats her like a human and Of course that’s what you’d expect from the main teen girl and boy in the series. In CoS 3, Sayo's character is mostly played out to be a major tsundere for Kotaro even though surprisingly HIS character in this game changed a ton compared to 1 and 2 (he had to kill an illusion of his older brother, who he learned actually died earlier, and now he has to kill an illusion of his childhood sweetheart... damb that shit sucks :/). He’s still stupid though

There’s a gag in CoS 2 that I can’t clearly remember where it’s like, Niigi makes Sayo and Fumiko, who are both romantically interested in Kotaro, think that he’s only into little girls? Meanwhile, Fumiko’s magic goes wrong and her appearance turns to that of a child though in response she’s like “hee hee maybe Kotaro will like this”. basically more On-Brand early 2000′s anime unwokeness than average. Speaking of Fumiko, she’s a 400+ year old militaristic witch who constantly teases Kotaro (who’s like 16 or 17) and she wants to marry him for his magical potential since he’s like one of the candidates for becoming God??? From the official CoS 3 character descriptions, “Her hobby is to steal the men from other women. Her second hobby is trampling upon people.” She canonically stole her stepmother’s husband from her stepmother (the 3rd boss of CoS 3). I don’t get how that shit would have worked

3. The game itself is HARD af but to be fair I’m a scrub gamer. I can’t get past stage 3 on easy difficulty without continuing. Yes i bought CoS 1 on Steam, Yes it has a port on steam i feel like i should have mentioned this earlier

4. Besides CoS 1 having a port on Steam, CoS 2 and 3 might be hard to obtain legally. The poorly translated CoS 2 was apparently super cheap back then, but since it’s an old game, its value might’ve increased. When I tried looking up prices for English CoS 3, all the listings were like at least $40 and being broke I wouldn’t want to spend more than $29 for a Wii game in 2019... honestly I just emulated CoS 2. shout out to PCSX2

Last month I was desperate, bored enough, and deep enough in the Shikigami rabbit hole that I tried to find the manga based off of it online. The CoS manga only tells the events of the first two games so I still don’t really get anything about CoS 3, like who Mihee, Batu, and Emilio are supposed to be. However, the plot events also differ. For example, Roger Sasuke exists as a character in CoS 3 but in the manga he literally Dies. There’s 11 total volumes of this; 3 volumes dedicated to CoS 1 and the latter 8 (the “Twisted Castle arc”) dedicated to CoS 2. Only the very first 3 chapters were scanlated to English all the way in 2011. Fortunately, I did find the entire manga uploaded though............... in CHINESE. So you know what I did? I “read” the entire thing using my phone’s Google Translate OCR app to take pictures of each page and comprehend the translations. Of course I still don’t understand CRAP because of the Mumei Sekaikan jargon + machine translation but I understood enough to get emotionally attached to some of the characters. I wish I hadn’t. At least through the manga I learned that the characters DO have some depth and pre-established relationships. For instance, the reason why Roger Sasuke became a ninja is because when he first landed in Japan as a kid, he was getting bullied or something and he didn’t know Japanese then Kotaro saw this and told the bullies to stop. Then after Roy /sorry i mean Roger learned that he was set to home-stay with the Kugas in the first place, he decided to dedicate his life to Japan in order to protect Kotaro back. I think. DO U SEE HOW ABSURD THIS SHIT IS Anyway Nanayozuki takes place between the second and third games and sets things up for CoS 3. There’s a full playthrough of it uploaded to YouTube and I think it contains a lot of juicy lore, but it’s just too much to go over with Shitty Google Translate OCR. There’s also Shikigami no Shiro novels which apparently contain the most backstory, but I have a 0% chance of finding these online for free. Not to mention that these would ALSO be too much effort to Google Translate.

in conclusion: You don’t HAVE to play Castle of Shikigami. Like, I’m not gonna recommend it for the content, but if you love shmups and are looking for a shmup game you haven’t heard of then I will recommend it for the gameplay (old touhou mutuals assemble theres a POWER-UP-BY-GRAZE MECHANIC). I’ve counted like 4 total fans outside of Japan that like this series for the story, and I don’t think that number is going to increase because I doubt CoS 2 will ever get retranslated and ported. I just want you to know that this series exists and that there’s a ton of wacky shit behind it besides the bad Castle Shikigami 2 dub. also if someone knows enough japanese or chinese and has an INKLING of interest in this series umm talk to me and help me decipher stuff

I‘m kinda sad that the series is pretty much Dead though. This is the most recent piece of official Castle of Shikigami art I could find, and this was for the 2018 New Year. The next most recent piece of official CoS art I found was also drawn by the character designer Sonoda Miku all the way in January 2008, commemorating the end of the CoS manga serialization. Alfa System released a spiritual sequel to Castle of Shikigami on the Japanese Switch eShop called Sisters Royale, with character designs I think are still by Sonoda. By “spiritual sequel” I mean that it has some of the EXACT same shot types as CoS and the same mechanic where grazing bullets increases your power and score. This is the closest we’ll get to a Shikigami no Shiro 4. I wonder what the business decision behind that game was but it actually looks like fun and I want to play it so OK Go off i guess

#bees are good #castle of shikigami #shikigami no shiro #video games #i feel: DISEASED

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raywritesthings · 7 years

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Arrow and Harry Potter

Arrow

my all-time ultimate fave character: Laurel Lance

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: I hated Quentin at first, and I lot of stuff he did/does I still don’t like but I’ve grown to appreciate his complexity and his dynamics with Laurel and Oliver. Of course now that Laurel’s dead he has like nothing to do so it’s just stupid.

a character I used to like but now don’t: Felicity was cute s1...she got on my nerves pretty quickly after that, though. I hate what Diggle has become. Like just look at him s1 compared to now and it’s just sad. I miss when Diggle was his own character.

a character I’m indifferent about: Can I just say any of the new recruits? Like, I just don’t care about any of them. At all. I didn’t start the show for them, I started for GA and BC, why is this so hard for the showrunners to grasp? I’m also pretty indifferent towards Sara, no lie. She’s just kind of there and then not and then there again. She drifts into the story and out and doesn’t really seem to have all that lasting of an impact. I mean she can literally be plucked from the timeline because she’s apparently of little enough importance history won’t miss her. And it totally undermined the whole “journey” aspect of characters when we met her and she was just insta-badass straight out of her new s2 packaging, now with 100% more blonde, some reshooting required. Maybe if they’d bothered to show her training--but that would have required them to actually show a wlw relationship and not just the angsty post-breakup stage so that wasn’t gonna happen. Like I don’t necessarily hate her but I don’t like her much either. She’s just kind of meh to me.

a character who deserved better: DINAH. LAUREL. LANCE.

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: O/F, Oliver/Sara, and lowkey Nyssa/Sara - Nyssa was always so much more invested than Sara from her first appearance to her last. Like you got her going on and on about her “beloved” and then Sara’s flirting it up and kissing people throughout time and space, the heck am I supposed to do with that? Also I haven’t liked Thea/Roy ever since Roy ditched her after sleeping together and left no forwarding address. Dick move, dude.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Lauriver, dear god, the beauty and the tragedy will haunt me forever

a cute, low-key ship: I liked Oliver and McKenna, I won’t lie. Moira and Walter were tragic but precious. Also if Tommy had lived I could’ve seen him and Helena having an interesting thing don’t judge me.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: Non-canon but I’m gonna go Lauryssa. Also Constantine/Oliver.

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: O/F, when will these writers learn that ship destroyed both those characters

my favourite storyline/moment: I’m in that rare minority that loved s1 so much more than s2. S2′s where it started going wrong, the fridging women left and right, Slade’s shitty motivation for being bad--he’s a mercenary, for fuck’s sake, it does not need to be about a woman he loved and lost, it’s not complicated--retconning the flashbacks left and right, but s1 was so good. Also loved Laurel becoming BC though I never got why the writers needed to start her off at square one when they showed she could fight the previous two seasons.

a storyline that never should have been written: Basically the entire s4 plot. Magic and nukes are not GA’s thing. Also killing BC on a GA show is such bs. Real GA would have rather seen himself killed first.

my first thoughts on the show: Ok, this is interesting! The fight scenes are good, I want to see how these characters become more like their comic book counterparts.

my thoughts now: Well that sucked.

my all-time ultimate fave character: Oh man, how can you do this to me? TOO MANY, OKAY? I HAVE TOO MANY.

a character I didn’t used to like but now do: Dudley is so much more interesting after book 7. I like the idea that he finally started to realize that his parents and their abuse towards Harry was shit. I know JKR decided to not give Dudley a magic child in the epilogue, but I wish she had. It would have been so nice to see Dudley break the cycle of abuse in the Dursley family once and for all by loving and supporting his kid no matter what.

a character I used to like but now don’t: I don’t know if I dislike him necessarily but I definitely don’t like him the way I used to as a kid - okay, yeah, it’s Dumbledore. I mean he is soooo complex, and that’s a good thing. But a lot of the stuff he did? Not cool.

a character I’m indifferent about: Basically a lot of the OCs that masquerade in fics as barely-mentioned students. It’s fine if you wanna use them, but it’s weird to me when people start purporting their characterizations of them as fact if that makes sense? To that end, I’m also mostly indifferent about all the next gen kids with the exception of Teddy (there’s just a lot there to his character that would be so interesting to unpack - why was Cursed Child not about Teddy Lupin with a better plot gdi).

a character who deserved better: So many characters tbh. Ginny Weasley deserved better from both JKR and all y’all. JKR promised an awesome moment having to do with her being the seventh child of a seventh child (Arthur) and then never delivered. Fandom is shitty to her because she gets in the way of their ships (like especially H/HR and H/D shippers seem to love to demonize a teenage girl in their fics, just saying) and because they seem to think Hermione is enough female rep which is such bs. Ron also deserves soooooo much better from fandom. So, so much better. Hagrid deserved to have one of Harry’s kids named after him. Sirius Black just deserved a better life. Snape deserved not to be abused as a child. Harry deserved like basically everything better. The Weasleys deserved not to be poor - do you see where I’m coming from here???

a ship I’ve never been able to get into: A lot of the non-canon ones (H/HR - she’s like a SISTER to him, he LITERALLY SAYS; H/D - It’s implied in that bathroom fight scene Draco was about to use the CRUCIATUS CURSE like WTF also he’s just kinda shitty to Harry and his friends almost the entire series just saying). Obviously if you wanna write AUs where things are completely different, that’s up to you, but they’re just not for me.

a ship I’ve never been able to get over: Jily, Hinny, Romione

a cute, low-key ship: Deanmus is the gay/bi rep we deserved, not unhealthy and possibly one-sided Dumbledore/Grindelwald. I feel like in book 5 at least Luna might’ve had a thing for Ron which is kind of adorable. Although I also like Ginny/Luna. Also I lowkey think Harry might’ve had a crush on both Cho and Cedric at the same time. Teenage years suck.

an unpopular ship but I still enjoyed it: I mean Romione seems to be unpopular with a lot of fandom but I love it so sucks to suck

a ship that was totally wrong and never should have happened: I’m pretty much ok on all the canon ships. I mean I wish JKR hadn’t tried to push this whole “Snape loved Lily” thing. More like “Snape was obsessed with Lily and never got over her”.

my favourite storyline/moment: ahhhhh I don’t know, maybe Ron coming back to save Harry and destroy the Horcrux.his insecurities? Such a great moment for his character, and his and Harry’s friendship. I also just love how Harry’s whole outlook on life completely brightened up in HBP during the time he was dating Ginny. It was so lovely to see him happy for once. And I love all of book three, it is my favorite. Also the Moody-is-really-Barty Jr. twist remains one of the greatest of All Time and the movies ruined it but I digress.

a storyline that never should have been written: Like I’m not saying it shouldn’t have been written, I just don’t like how Snape’s backstory has given rise to this idea that he did Nothing Wrong, Ever and it was Lily’s fault for ending the friendship that he turned to the Dark Side. Like fuck off, he was already there and it was not her job to be his “savior” when he sure as hell didn’t want saved. Also all the movies. Damn you, Kloves.

my first thoughts on the show books: This is such a great story and world! I love the characters and I can’t wait to see what happens next! (or something along those lines - I was young, okay?)

my thoughts now: While there’s certainly plenty of issues (lack of rep for many marginalized groups, for example) it still holds up as a really strong series. Must resist temptation to begin yet another reread.

#arrow #hp #emerson replies #ayotofu

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